Category: NAH

NAH Elections for Regional Reps

Posted on by Ben Schultz

NAH election season is here.

Starting next week, club reps in each of the seven NAH regions will each be voting for three regional reps.

  • February 27th at 5pm ET: Deadline to update club reps, and deadline to declare your candidacy as a regional rep (see below)
  • February 28th: Voting opens for regional reps. Regional reps will be elected by club reps via a ranked ballot (each club rep will choose three candidates and rank them 1, 2, 3).
  • March 7th 5pm ET: voting closes. Results will be available shortly after.

Regional Reps

Since the dawn of NAH, we’ve relied on diverse perspectives and volunteer participation from the North American polo community. This involvement has helped shape NAH into a global model for organizing our burgeoning sport. This next election marks the beginning of yet another milestone in our development.

North American Hardcourt is holding elections for Regional Representatives in the coming weeks. Now is your opportunity to make a positive impact in how we plan, grow, and change. We need people with a critical – even dissatisfied – eye, but also those with a positive approach and who possess the skills and willingness to make improvements.

To that end, we have better defined our regional rep positions:

  • Regional Representative, NAH board – Oversee and manage their region and bring their region’s work and ideas to the board. An ability to delegate, organize, and communicate respectfully and clearly is a must.
  • Regional Representative, Outreach – This is the Johnny Appleseed position. Assist new clubs in getting started, help build clubs with questions and building membership, finding sponsorship, and nurture inter-club relationships.
  • Regional Representative, Tournaments – Coordinate/schedule your region’s qualifier, help develop non-NAH tourneys, oversee referee development in coordination with Ref Committee, and develop our NAH series schedule in concert with the Tournaments Committee.

This refinement is a leap forward which will help accomplish the new and exciting plans for 2013, 2014, and 2015. It’s a great time to get involved. Your involvement could help decide the North American Championships location, assist with rules development, plan logistics for an NAH tour, make your region stronger, develop PR strategies, and so on.

The goal of NAH has always been to organize competition, foster world-class bike polo, nurture interest, and represent North America on the world stage.  We want you to continue and grow that tradition. Here are the steps to declare your candidacy:

  1. Visit your region’s page on  League of Bike Polo:
  2. Post your declaration of candidacy. Given the distinct roles, it might be good to emphasize which regional rep position you hope to occupy and provide your qualifications.
  3. After posting to LoBP, send your contact information to secretary@nahardcourt.com. If you’re elected, this is how we’ll contact you.

Share this with all the polo folks in your life. Discussion is key. You can also watch the opinions fly on the League of Bike Polo thread as well..

Posted in NAH

Proposed Structure for 2013 and 2014

Posted on by Joe Rstom

The NAH board is close to deciding on a structure for the 2013 season. The goal is to bring a balance of equity between the varying regions while still ensuring the highest levels of competition for the North American Championship. This proposal has been discussed at two consecutive board meetings and is now being presented for public comment. All comments and concerns should be directed to your regional board members no later than Monday, December 11th. Here are the emails:

The primary points of the proposal are (1) closed regions, (2) weighted allotment of slots for the NAHBPC, (3) a shorter window for regionals to occur, and (4) calendar revision.

(1) Closed regions: This is the hallmark of the new format. The current system not only gives preference to those with the time and money to travel, but also skews qualifier results due to the presence of out of region players. This provided an incomplete view of each regions’ strength. A new system of closed qualifiers will plainly show the best teams in each region, and will allow the strongest teams in traditionally weaker regions to progress to the NAHBPC. It is important to note that the two-thirds rule will still apply, but that any individual player will only be allowed to play in one regional event. Any team with all, or two-thirds, of its players from a single region must play in that region. A team composed of players from three different regions may choose to play in any of the three regions, but can only play in one regional.

(2) Weighted allotment of slots: Associated with closed regions is the fact that some regions are significantly stronger than others, which should be reflected in representation at NAHBPC. In the current proposal, as a baseline, the podium finishers from each regional qualifier will be guaranteed a slot at the North American Championship (21 slots). This provides the equality to ensure that every region is represented by their best teams.

The remainder of slots after podium finishers will be divided among the regions based on relative strength. The board has considered a myriad of possibilities for allocation methods based on strength, and has concluded that a reasonable and straightforward method would be to award each region an additional slot for each top-24 team from that region at the previous year’s NAHBPC (24 slots). This allocation leaves three open slots for a 48-team NAHBPC, which could be awarded based on additional criteria to be determined.

A sample 2013 allocation under this system can be seen at the very bottom of this document. However, due to concerns about the effect of the previously open qualifier system on the 2012 results, among other concerns, the board has developed a transitional allocation plan for the 2013 season. Under this proposal, the 2013 NAHBPC will be a 48-team tournament, allocated as follows:

Cascadia Podium + 6 = 9
Midwest Podium + 6 = 9
Eastside Podium + 4 = 7
Northside Podium + 3 = 6
South Central Podium + 3 = 6
Southwest Podium + 3 = 6
Southeast Podium + 2 = 5

(3) Shorter window for qualifiers: This past year we had regional qualifiers occur as early as January and as late as June. Due to our sport’s overwhelming growth the past few years the polo calendar has become very crowded, so it’s in the interest of both qualifiers and non-NAH events to define a set window for regionals to occur. It was decided that a two month window was a reasonable amount of time. The exact date of each event is up to the host, so long as it occurs during the “regionals window” discussed in section (4).

(4) Calendar revision: This point is very much tied to #3. A comprehensive discussion took place about the ideal time to hold qualifiers, NA’s, and by extension, Worlds. Too early in the year doesn’t allow time for teams to develop and too late in the year and interest/health might wane due to a long season. Weather is also an important factor. After considering many different permutations of the schedule it was decided that the regional window would be mid-April to mid-June, then a break would occur for the hottest months of summer, then the NAHBPC and Worlds would occur during the ideal polo playing season of early Autumn (Aug/Sept, or Sept/Oct, depending on the host cities).

To summarize, for 2013:

  • -Regionals are closed and will be held from mid-April through mid-June.
  • -NAHBPC will be held in August/September and Worlds in September/October.
  • -Each player may only play in one regional qualifier.
  • -2013 NAHBPC is 48 teams: Cascadia – 9, Midwest – 9, Eastside – 7, Northside – 6, South Central – 6, Southwest – 6, Southeast – 5.

For 2014:

  • -The top 3 teams from each regional are guaranteed a slot at NAHBPC.
  • -A top-24 finish at the 2013 NAHBPC earns your region an additional slot for 2014.

FOR EXAMPLE ONLY, A SAMPLE ALLOTMENT based on the 2012 results would lead to the following distribution:

Cascadia 3 + 6 = 9
MidWest 3 + 8 = 11
SouthWest 3 + 1 = 4
EastSide 3 + 4 = 7
NorthSide 3 + 2 = 5
SouthEast 3 + 0 = 3
SouthCentral 3 + 2 = 5
Open Slots 4*
*Due to a foreign team in the top-24 of the 2012 NAHBPC, only 23 bonus slots are distributed in this example.

2 players fighting for the ball.

Welcome to North American Hardcourt!

Posted on by Joe Rstom

North American Hardcourt is an organizational body comprised of players from the hardcourt bike polo community.

The purpose of NAH is:

  • to promote and nurture the growth of hardcourt bike polo throughout the continent.
  • to establish a body through which to organize with other players around the globe.
  • to provide a tournament series – the NAH Tour – through which to encourage and foster high level competition.
  • to promote the culture of genuine community and respect that has come to define our game.

This year will see the inaugural 2011 NAH Tour circuit – a series of seven regional tournaments that will act as qualifiers to enter into the North American Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships in Calgary and the World Hardcourt Championships in Seattle.

WE NEED SPONSORS FOR THIS TOUR. Please contact us through the site and well help you get involved.

Very soon we will have a complete calendar, map, list of rules, downloadable press kit and sponsorship info available, as well as videos, pictures and links to other hardcourt sites and clubs..

Posted in NAH